Why Pine Trees Creak and Moan

By Genot 'Winter Elk' Picor
Artwork by Brian Carter

After Gitchee Manitou had created the world, he decided to make a new creature. He asked the animals what His new creation should look like, but none of them could agree. So The Creator fashioned it like no other; its most powerful quality was the ability to reason.

“I will call this new creation ‘Man,’” spoke the Creator. “He will not be able to outrun the animals of the forest; he will stand upright and walk on two legs. He will fear the sounds of the night. Man will not be able to swim like ‘Keego’ the fish, nor will he soar like Wingiizii the Eagle. And so it was.”

One night, as The First Man sat by his fire, he felt emptiness in his heart. He reasoned that he needed a companion. This was something on which Gitchee Manitou had not planned. So to quell his loneliness, Gitchee Manitou sent a fireball across the sky, which landed near The First Man’s fire. From this blazing ball emerged The First Woman. She was the answer to his loneliness.

They lived together for many years and enjoyed a long life together. Their children populated the Earth as they do to this day. But The First Man began to grow weak and feeble in his old age. The First Woman cared for him and nursed him as best as she could, but eventually, like all living things, he died.

The First Woman fell into a deep and lasting sadness. The animals met in council and decided to care for The First Woman, but they could no nothing for her. She refused food and water during this time of perpetual mourning. Eventually, she too fell into the sleep that knows no waking.

The animals wept and mourned her loss. They buried her under a young pine sapling next to The First Man. As time passed, all living things had forgotten about their grave; all but the pine sapling, which had grown into a strong adult tree.

“To remember The First Man and First Woman, my branches will always reach out like arms in remembrance of their embrace. In the morning, tears will fall from my needles. When the wind blows through my branches, my sturdy trunk will creak and moan in sorrow.”

And this is why pine trees still mourn for the first born of the Earth.